Now, be strong. Live the Gospel.

4/6/14

Hi! I have so many things to say this week I don't even know where to begin. I'll start with my week. Our week was so good. Probably one of my favorite things was listening to one of the members here give a spiritual thought at our fireside night. She's my age and she's the cutest. She's actually from Armenia, like most of the other people in the branch. She gave a spiritual thought on how God loves us and how the Atonement is central to the Plan of Salvation and to our happiness. As she was talking I was blown away by missionary work all over again. Somebody taught this girl and her family, they recognized truth and chose to be baptized. Now here she was, eloquently and with 100% faith teaching us the message we try to share with people everyday. It was powerful. It was a good reminder that people do accept this Gospel, that it changes them, gives them hope, and then as they are changed they feel the desire to share that knowledge. Coolest thing of my life. Wow. We also had a lesson with a new investigator this week who told us that her life before God was like SpongeBob and she was Patrick. So. That happened. Haha. What a lady. I like her so much though and by the end of our first lesson she said she believed our church was true. Way cool. Also, during said lesson I accidentally told her that we only believe in homosexual relations after marriage. Score for Sister Harris. Now, General Conference. Oh my gosh. We have the best leaders in the entire world. I'm blown away by how much I loved General Conference. I have only seen the Saturday sessions but they were so good. I loved Elder Holland's talk. I loved the focus on small things like daily scripture study, family prayer, and family home evening. Those are all so simple. So easy to do. And I have the biggest testimony that those are the very things that change people's lives. I have seen it so much here in Russia. The people, the families that establish righteous traditions are the ones that stay active, the ones that help the missionaries, the ones that continually grow closer to Heavenly Father. That is real. That doesn't mean we have to be perfect in doing these things, but it does mean we have to try. President Lawrence said, "It's in the striving that your heart changes." And I can testify of that. I know it is true that as we try our hardest to do the small things, the simple things Heavenly Father has asked us, we come to understand our purpose, our divine nature, and our potential as well as the potential of others. I love this Gospel. I love the Priesthood and it blesses my life everyday. Especially as a sister missionary, I get to spend 18 months seeing the Priesthood in action in the form of Elders. And I love that. I'm so happy to be apart of this Church. I think Elder Holland said it best, "Now, be strong. Live the Gospel." I love you all! Love, Sister Harris